Kit Pearson gets the Woodcock
March 10th, 2025
Kit Pearson (at right) won the Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature in 1997. She received the 11th annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2014. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2019.
Now Kit Pearson is the recipient of the 2025 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in BC.
Critics have praised her meticulous research, her narrative skill, her imaginative choice of subjects from all across Canada, and her clearly crafted prose.
The variety of awards Kit Pearson has won for her books include the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and a host of other honours (including international awards).
Kit Pearson (r) with Governor General Julie Payette, receiving the Order of Canada, 2019.
Pearson is also a generous member of the children’s writing community, being one of the co-founders of the Children’s Writers & Illustrators of BC, which provides writers and illustrators with a way to connect, support each other, and promote children’s books.
A fierce supporter of kidlit and young readers’ literature, Kit Pearson made a point of noting that it was the second year in a row that a writer for children had been recognized with the Lieutenant Governor’s Award in 2014 (Sarah Ellis had won the year before). “Now that it has once again gone to a children’s writer,” said Pearson in her acceptance speech, “perhaps it can be stated that writers for the young have finally—at least in BC—been recognized as being on the same level as those who write for adults.”
“Actually, we have never been very different,” she continued. “I struggle with the same problems as any other fiction writer. Here, for example, are some of the questions about my current novel that wake me up at night: How much am I allowed to fictionalize real people from history? Shall I use the present or the past tense? After writing for thirty years, why can’t I find fresh ways to describe someone crying? And why, oh why, do I keep repeating the same sentences, such as, ‘There was an awkward silence.’ Every novelist is challenged by similar questions.”
Kit Pearson at home with her dogs, 2019. Photo by Katherine Farris.
Kit Pearson was born in Edmonton in 1947. She attended UBC and the University of Alberta. Later she worked as a children’s librarian in St. Catherines, North York and Burnaby for ten years prior to receiving the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award, the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson for Historical Fiction for Young People Prize for The Sky Is Falling (1989), the first of three novels about two English children evacuated to Canada to escape the bombing of World War II. Looking at the Moon (1991) and The Lights Go on Again (1993) complete the trilogy. Pearson’s A Handful of Time (1987) won a Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award and was preceded a year earlier by her first book, The Daring Game. Her title, Awake and Dreaming (1996) won the 1997 Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature.
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COMPLETE LIST OF BOOKS:
Be My Love (HarperCollins, 2019) $14.99 9781443444026
The Magic Boat (Orca, 2019) $19.95 9781459814325 hard cover. Illustrations by Gabrielle Grimmand
A Day of Signs and Wonders (HarperCollins, 2016) $16.99 9781443443999
And Nothing but the Truth (HarperCollins, 2013) 9781554688555
The Whole Truth (HarperCollins, 2012) 9781554688531
A Perfect Gentle Knight (Penguin, 2007) $20 0670066826
Whispers of War (Scholastic, 2002)
This Land, Anthology (Editor) (Toronto: Penguin, 1998)
The Guests of War Trilogy (Toronto: Penguin, 1998)
Awake and Dreaming (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1996)
The Lights Go On Again (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1993; Puffin Classics, 2014)
Looking at the Moon (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1991; Puffin Classics, 2014)
The Singing Basket (Illustrated by Ann Blades) (Groundwood, 1990)
The Sky is Falling (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1989; Puffin Classics, 2014)
A Handful of Time (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1987)
The Daring Game (Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Limited, 1986)
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AWARDS
-Governor General’s Award for English-language children’s literature for Awake and Dreaming
-Vicky Metcalf Award for a body of work
-Mr. Christie’s Book Award, for The Sky is Falling
-The “Vlag en Wimpel” prize for the Dutch edition of The Sky is Falling
-Canadian Library Association Children’s Book of the Year Award, for A Handful of Time, The Sky is Falling and The Whole Truth
-Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, for The Sky is Falling and The Lights Go on Again
-Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award, for Looking at the Moon and Awake and Dreaming
-National I.O.D.E. Violet Downey Award for The Lights Go On Again
-Ruth Schwartz Award, for Awake and Dreaming and The Whole Truth
-Red Cedar Award, for Awake and Dreaming
-Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence
-Order of Canada
– George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award
I once took a class with Kit. She was tremendously supportive and generous with her time, feedback and praise. The book I worked on when in her class became my first published novel – Reading the Bones.